Water Discovered In The Crater Of The Moon

According to the data provided by NASA Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter about 22 per cent of the surface of moon crater called Shackleton situated in the South pole area is formed by ice.

Despite that fact this crater is 3 billion years old it is certainly well preserved. There are several minor craters in its bottom that most likely appeared as a result of the collision which created Shackleton itself.

The lunar crater obtained its name in honor of the researcher Ernst Shackleton. The crater’s depth amounts to 1,9 miles and its it is over 13 miles wide. The fact of its being situated near the South pole and a slight axial inclination made a good background for cold and wet climate out there.

The crater map designed by LRO is decently detailed as the best laser altimeter used to make it possesses high sensitivity to the diversity of levels that correspond to its wave length and it is about 1 micron long.it also was possible to measure up the albedo of the material which the crater is inlayed by.

Massachusetts Institute specialists were very surprised to see that the Shackleton crater walls are even brighter than its bottom. At first this cause major confusion among the scientists: they thought that provided there was still ice inside the crater it had to be at the bottom where sun light cannot reach. According to the scientists’ theory any kind the ice should have melted long ago from the upper sides of the crater.

Nevertheless, the researchers kept developing the hypothesis of lunar quakes. Either meteorites falling on Moon or strong gravity could have caused the moon seismic movements that peeled the old surface of Shackleton crater walls and reveal the new layer that is much brighter. The data obtained by LRO indicate that there is ice not only at the bottom but also at the shoulders of the moon crater. It is now considered as the best place to build a moon base.

It is not the first time when scientists tried to discover any signs of water on the surface of moon although it used to be a common fact that the Moon was completely dry. However the researchers never gave up and kept looking for it. They analyzed the lunar ground from the past two Apollo missions and discovered that there was some moisture within the material however it was not the complete H2O as we are used to see it but as a hydroxyl particle OH which is involved to the structure of crystal lattice of those minerals

Where could the water come from to the moon? There are a lot of speculations on this topic. Some say it may be caused by solar wind and other say it was comets that are sometimes 50 per cent water. Due to the fact that hydrogen as well as water quantity prevails in the whole Universe it is most probably the water on moon could be caused by a lot of factors.